WASHINGTON — An unkept promise of Donald Trump’s presidency is that he’d end the war between Russia and Ukraine in one swift diplomatic masterstroke .

Trump made threats. He applied pressure. Still, the bombs keep falling, the casualties continue to pile up.

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Now, Trump is betting that a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin will yield the elusive breakthrough and possibly quell concerns among voters about his handling of the war.

The summit taking place Friday on friendly turf, the red state of Alaska, amounts to one of the biggest gambits of Trump’s second term. Hosting the meeting raises expectations that he’ll stop the fighting. The president faces traps in sitting down with Putin, w

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